The Trends in SEO that every Business Needs to Know
“Rankings are not a goal. They are the trophy of a job well done.”
Stoney deGeyter
The influence of search on digital traffic is incredible. On average there are 3.5 billion searches conducted every day. This translates to 90% of all traffic on the World Wide Web originating from search engines. Businesses will be interested in the fact that 64% people say that they use search to influence their ‘I-want-to-buy’ moments according to a research by Think with Google.
However, while search is influential and search engine optimization is the key to improving your chances of being more visible to your audiences, the secret lies in knowing the tricks of the trade. An important aspect of effective SEO is being in sync with the trends prevalent in the industry. This is essential in modern times because with the pace at which things change in the digital realm, you always have to be on your toes.
Given below is a roundup of all the recent trends in search engine optimization:
1. The evolution of SERP
SERP stands for Search Engine Result Pages. Google has come a long way. From something that looked as simple as this:
To a platform that’s vibrant and immersive:
There have been a lot of additional features that make the user experience quite productive. The search engine picks out all the relevant categories related to the search parameters like Images, News, Videos, Social Media trends and displays it in an aesthetic as well as user friendly manner. While this has worked wonders for Google, businesses have had to evolve with these changing trends.
The small pieces of content separated from the rest are called snippets. These may be natural or featured but the fact of the matter is that content has to be optimized for them and a host of other options introduced by Google and other search engines.
There are a number of tools that can analyze as many as 15 SERP features for any website. These platforms allow businesses to analyze keywords, snippets and other features which resonate most effectively with target consumers. Thus, the process of optimizing for each feature becomes quite simple.
2. The importance of speed
According to Google, the ideal load speed for a website is three seconds. The search engine has a thing for speed. It has always displayed a small line at the top of every search page that goes something like; “About 24,510,000,000 results (0.60 seconds).” This is because users don’t stick around for websites to load. Google’s average load speed time is based on the amount of time a person will wait for a page to load. Businesses can employ a number of tactics to improve their load speeds including optimizing the coding language and compressing images and other visual elements etc. You can take Google’s page speed test to analyze your standings.
3. Relevance to the query
Google changes it search algorithms around 500 – 600 times every year. In recent years these iterations have become smarter and smarter. They no longer search for keywords but use state of the art techniques like Latent Semantic Indexing. This process analyzes billions of content pages for specific terms and then builds a framework as to which are the most relevant in a given context. This means that for any given query the highest rated content will be the one that provides the most relevant information.
4. Voice searches
It is expected that 50% of all searches will be made using voice assistants by 2020. The ease of use offered by this hands-free experience is amazing. The dynamics of voice search are different from traditional ones. This means that the SEO techniques used for each differ as well. Again, businesses can enlist the help of softwares that analyze and present them with the questions voice searchers are most likely to ask. Keywords can be picked from these queries and websites can be optimized accordingly.
5. The growth of mobile searches
Almost half of the world population now owns a smartphone. This has also been confirmed by Google as they revealed recently that a major portion of all search results now emerge from mobile devices. The website dynamics for mobile are different as compared to desktop versions and so is the respective SEO strategy. Businesses have to focus on created cross-functional websites and a majority of them are. Search results are displayed differently on mobile and if your website doesn’t have a smartphone friendly version, it is most likely to drop in rankings on these devices.
6. Google is getting harder to fool
There was a time when there were a certain things which website owners could cram their websites with in order to improve their rankings. However, as we’ve discussed earlier, Google has become too smart to be tricked. The search engine and its algorithms run hundreds of checks for links, content and keywords in order to determine the content that best answers user queries and enhance their experiences. As a result, businesses today need to develop rich quality content that has an appropriate balance of on-page and off-page elements. As long as the content provides users with value, they will love it and in turn Google will love it too.
7. Visual content can make a lot of difference
Images, infographics, and videos are taking the internet by storm. According to a research by Cisco, more than 80% of all content on the internet will be videos by 2020. Microblogging, a technique of using small pieces of content with visual elements is also growing in popularity. This lends credibility to the importance of visuals. The dynamics of video and image SEO vary based on the nature of the content. A Huntsville web services company can help you out with this.
8. The influence of social media
There is no doubt to the fact that search trumps social media when it comes to generating traffic but there is also no ambiguity about the fact that they both go hand in hand. Social media reactions to pages and posts linked to content are influential in determining its relevance. Google takes these things into account and uses social media as an element to ascertain the credibility of the content.
The world of search is expanding rapidly and growing businesses looking to increase their organic reach have to keep up. Neglecting the importance of these elements can cause you to lose out on substantial opportunities.
In order to learn more about Huntsville SEO services, get in touch with us at igwebs today.
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